


d'Vel'nahr

by Medie



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-29
Updated: 2010-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-09 05:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amanda is d'Vel'nahr - Vulcan by choice - no matter how many want her to fail.</p>
            </blockquote>





	d'Vel'nahr

**Author's Note:**

> written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/bridge2sickbay/profile)[**bridge2sickbay**](http://community.livejournal.com/bridge2sickbay/). Prompt Sarek/Amanda - Your eyes... Your ears... Your senses... will be overwhelmed" title comes from the Vulcan Language Dictionary

Vulcan swallows her whole. She isn't prepared for that. Oh, she'd thought she was. Like every other child, she learned about Vulcan almost before she'd truly begun learning about Earth. She'd learned the major cities, the names of T'Khut (the Watcher whose name is always in flux) and the name of Vulcan itself, the one used only by the Vulcans themselves, and she'd studied, in turn, the ancient clans ruled by the immutable Eldest Mothers, the geopolitical structure of Vulcan in the time of Surak, and she'd muddled through his Analects in junior high.

When she supplemented her doctorate with a second one in linguistics, Vulcan's lure had been irresistible. Prowling its blood red sands, Amanda learned Vulcan and laughed with delight to know Vulcans _swear_ and, if you're careful, you just might get to hear it. She's learned all that and more, treasured it all, but never once thought how little she truly understood.

Blind to her ignorance, Amanda Grayson walked the streets of Shi'kahr with wide eyes and a heart for learning. She'd explored the city for hours at a time, her halting Vulcan patiently indulged by shopkeepers and citizens alike, all the while thoroughly anonymous. Another Terran in a sea of outworlders.

_T'Sai_ Amanda _Aduna_ Sarek has no such luxury. She's their Lady and she can't hide.

The house (the _estate_) is large, sprawling, a palace by any definition of the word, but it's too close, too confining, and Amanda resumes her wandering.

A servant selects her clothes (fine, luxurious fabrics that drape and frame a too-thin body still adapting to a Vulcan diet) and then she goes out. She can sense the disapproval from her escort, but nothing is said.

Nothing needs to be, of course, they've already called Sarek. Amanda knows that. Knows the call was likely made the instant she entered the blistering heat of a Vulcan afternoon and left the house behind.

She smiles to herself and enters the waiting groundcar that takes her to a market still unchanged. The heat is lessened here, the city center laid out to carry cooler breezes through its core, but still enough that her hair curls with sweat against her neck.

Years before, she'd been a young girl in Terran clothing, ducking this way and that. Now she slips into the crowd, _d'Vel'nahr_ but a lady nonetheless, and finds herself consumed by it. Quiet murmurs and the barest of touches as people move about.

No one pressing close, the clutch of Earth's crowds absent here, and Amanda is free to browse without the slightest interruption. She pauses before an array of spices and breathes the myriad of scents deep.

"You're late," she says, when she stands. Amusement laces through her words, but she modulates it, lets it permeate rather than dominate, and the thought itself nearly betrays her. She wonders if this is a new normal, treating conversations like recipes with emotions measured like ingredients, blending into disaster or magic.

"I was not aware, my wife, we had a designated meeting time." Sarek is watching her, breathtaking in his suit, and to look at him inspires thoughts entirely un-befitting a Vulcan lady in public.

She ducks her head, looking up at him through her lashes, and sees a glimmer of agreement in her husband's eye. "We didn't," she says, voice still light as she steps forward, two fingers pressing gently against his. "I, however, anticipated your arrival."

There are eyes watching them, she knows, some in approval, others in wary speculation, but they ignore them. She feels the sense of Sarek, greedy for her presence, brush her thoughts through the bond that is still so new. She responds in eager approval, denying him nothing even though their hands and gazes remain perfectly steady.

Sarek looks at her escort and then at Amanda once more. Amused. "They are concerned for you."

"Afraid I'll wander off?" she teases, but she can sense what he means. None of them will speak of it openly, letting the suggestion of it creep around the edges, Amanda doesn't see that changing anytime soon. They're Vulcans. The very personification of showing without telling.

"Perhaps," he says. "They think very highly of you, my wife. I believe I would find life most unpleasant were you to depart." The touch of his mind grows more insistent. She's still learning the import of it. The idea that she and she alone can know the truth of him brings a rush of power that's heady and all-encompassing.

"That's sweet," she says, meaning it. She knows their marriage isn't without controversy. Interspecies marriage is not a new concept to Vulcan, but she's _Human_. Barely more than a Vulcan generation ago, her ancestors were slugging it out in a brutal, worldwide conflict bloody enough to give even the most devoted of Vulcan historians pause. She's only a few steps removed from the chaos that terrifies them still as Sarek has inherited the legacy of his grandfather and those first Vulcans to walk the Earth. There are people of both species waiting to be proved right and see them fail.

She has chosen this world, these people, this man and, in turn, they have chosen her. "Come," she says, coaxing. "Spend the day with me."

Sarek considers it and nods.

Surrounded by the sights, smells, and sounds of her adopted home, Amanda opens her thoughts to her husband. He does the same, revealing all those secrets and fears, and fully aware of it all, she resolves to prove them wrong.


End file.
